This Care Box Is the Perfect Gift for Moms Expecting a Rainbow Baby

If you have ever been pregnant with a rainbow baby (the term for a baby that is carried after a miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss), or know someone who is pregnant with a rainbow baby, you know that it can be a very difficult and emotional experience.

On one hand, you want to celebrate the new life growing inside of you and give that baby the excitement that he or she deserves, but on the other hand, it can feel too painful. Moms who have experienced loss may consciously or even subconsciously guard their own hearts from getting too excited about a baby because they are afraid of having that baby taken away from them. Even though it doesn't always work that way, they try to lessen the pain they know that they could experience again by lessening the bond with the baby from the beginning. I know that when I got pregnant again after a miscarriage, I was so terrified that I refused to even download a pregnancy app to see what stage my baby should have been developed too–I didn't want to know because I knew that if I lost the baby, it would only hurt me more.

I did end up miscarrying again, and I was glad that I listened to my own instincts and did anything and everything I could to protect myself because although it didn't lessen the pain at all, it didn't add to it either. Moms like me sometimes need a little (or, OK, a lot) of help celebrating a rainbow baby pregnancy, which is exactly why Amelia Kowalisyn, 37, from Valparaiso, IN came up with the perfect care package to gift to a momma expecting a rainbow baby. The package contains special items meant to both comfort a mother's heart who is pregnant after a loss as well as gently celebrate the new little one she has been given.

“These have been on my heart for years now,” Kowalisyn wrote on her Facebook page announcing the care packages. “As a momma to four rainbows and knowing how immensely emotional that is, I wanted to help support and spread love to other mommas experiencing pregnancy after loss. Each item in this care package is extremely special to me and, I pray, will mean just as much to every woman who receives one.”

The rainbow baby care packages include a necklace that contains a mustard seed to remind mothers to have faith throughout their pregnancies, a “rainbow baby” onesie and bib, and a book on cherishing pregnancy after a loss.

Kowalisyn is the founder of Emma's Footprints, an organization in memory of her daughter, Emma Rose, who passed away in November 2014 at only 23 days old. According to Emma's Footprints Facebook page, Emma Rose passed due to complications from a severe stroke she had in utero. She was born on October 13th, 2014 along with her twin big brother Alexander and airlifted from Porter Memorial hospital a week after she was born. She spent the last weeks of her life at Riley Children's Hospital and during her stay there, her parents said they “were so overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of our friends and the community surrounding Riley who brought us care packages” that they knew they wanted to bring the same comfort to other NICU families.

Now, the family provides care packages for NICU families, along with bereavement care packages; supports families after the loss of an infant; and works towards bringing awareness to both premature birth and infant loss. Her “about me” states: “There is no footprint so small that it cannot leave an imprint on this world.”

Baby Emma has obviously left quite a footprint in the world through her caring and giving family and it makes me smile to think of her life touching so many through the work that her organization has done. Emma lives on through all of the rainbow babies that this box will celebrate and I can't think of anything more beautiful.

If you're interested in ordering a rainbow baby care box for yourself or gifting it, you can contact Emma's Footprints through their Facebook page or place an order by emailing emmasfootprints@gmail.com. The care packages can be delivered locally or mailed out to families within the United States and will include a handwritten note from the Emma's Footprints organization.

EverydayFamily.com offers general information and is for educational purposes only. This information is not a substitute for professional medical, psychiatric or psychological advice. Nothing on this website should be taken to imply an endorsement of EverydayFamily.com or its partners by any person quoted or mentioned.

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